


The Lost Falls

by midas_touch_of_angst



Category: Gravity Falls, Wayward Children Series - Seanan McGuire
Genre: Adventure, Character building, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fantasy, Group Therapy, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Mystery, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-Weirdmageddon, Schizophrenia, Therapy, Trans Dipper Pines, Trans Male Character, Weirdmageddon screwed them over in multiple ways, the kids aren't alright
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-07-19 23:39:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7382203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midas_touch_of_angst/pseuds/midas_touch_of_angst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I went to a magical, beautiful undersea Kingdom of Mermaids and Selkies, filled with silk and pearls and schools of fish, with houses of anemones and palaces built on the sea floor, with the sky so high above us it would take a month’s journey to reach it, our surroundings lit by glowing fish employed by the Merqueen. Tasia went to an evil world where a despotism tried to destroy all ideas of order among the lowly and used the poor only as entertainment, while a forest outside the Government’s reach was filled with evil trees that suffocated anyone who came near and ponds filled with murky whirlpools and fish that could eat you whole, and even beyond that mountains that entrapped you in them, waiting to feast on your rotting flesh until you killed yourself of hopelessness and self-hate.” She took a dramatic deep breath, then looked again at the twins. “So, where did you go?”</p><p>“Oregon.”</p><p>Playlist: http://8tracks.com/badwolfcipher/q</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Dipper should really have been used to bus rides by now. 

He disliked the jolt of the wheels on the road under his seat, the way his feet never seemed to touch the ground, the way Mabel would fall asleep while playing a game and Dipper would be left to sit alone. With a pig. Who was also asleep now. 

He stared at the window, and his shoulder started to numb as Mabel snored, her head resting on it, and her arm around Waddles. The trees passed by, blurred against the misty windows and speed of the bus, as the din of quiet conversations buzzed around him. Nobody paid attention to the twins in the back of the bus, except occasionally to glare at the pig they’d brought with them, or glance curiously at the suitcases under the seats, hiding secrets that nobody on the bus would understand, with memories none of them would ask for. 

Dipper considered taking Ford’s portal-mirror out of his bag and talking to his Great-Uncles, but no, that would be a bad idea. One, he would have to move, and that would wake Mabel from her slumber, and two, the other people on the bus would probably not take kindly to a magic mirror, especially considering why the twins were going to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. 

Wayward Children. Is that what they were now? That wasn’t a name Dipper wanted to adopt lightly. He’d definitely argued with his parents over going here- or tried to, at least. They’d quickly shouted him down, informed him that this was just a disease that occurred in children around their age, and sent them off without another word. They had tried to convince him not to take anything with him that would remind him of the last time he left home, but he still managed to smuggle away the Portal Mirror and Wendy’s hat, and Mabel had managed to sneak away her scrapbook, her diary and some of Stan and Ford’s gifts. 

Mabel muttered something in her sleep about pancakes, and Waddles grunted in response. Dipper sighed, fearing that they were getting nearer to their destination. He shifted slightly, trying to waken his sister, but she simply slumped over and pushed Waddles off the seat. He awoke and started squealing, causing several people to yell at Dipper to shut the animal up. Dipper wiggled away from Mabel and picked Waddles up, squeezing back onto the edge of the seat. The bus continued to rattle, and Dipper was starting to sweat, but he’d rather die than take Wendy’s hat off again. Not until they were somewhere safe. 

Eventually, the bus started to slow, announcing that they had mere minutes until they arrived at the Estate. Dipper placed Waddles on top of Mabel, hoping that would wake her up, but instead Waddles curled up, intending to take another nap. Dipper groaned and pushed Waddled off, causing him to squeal in Mabel’s ear, which caused her to jump up, screaming about monkeys and tennis shoes. The other bus passengers shushed them again, shooting them angry glares. 

Dipper managed to quiet his sister and her pig, and looked apologetically at the other people, who had calmed and gone back to what they were doing. 

“Are we almost there?” Mabel asked, looking outside the window to see that they were indeed slowing down. 

“Yeah. Don’t forget your stuff again, I’m not going to save your sweaters from Ninja Vampires again.”

Mabel laughed, lightly punching her brother’s arm. “That was one time, brobro! Plus, I didn’t leave it on the bus, it was stolen at a Roadside Attraction Stan made us sabotage, remember?”

“Heh, yeah.” Dipper laughed, rubbing his arm and wincing. 

 

 

The bus finally came to a stop, and the announcer called for Eleanor West’s Wayward Children, and the twins gathered their bags and walked off the bus, acutely aware of all the people watching them, realizing that their rowdy behaviour on the bus had just been explained by their destination. Out of the corner of his eye, Dipper saw a man check his pockets to make sure his belongings were still there. Mabel noticed another child stumbling behind them, much older and a lot more clumsy. The three left the bus and waited until it was gone, staring up at the Estate above them. 

The fields around them were perfect colors, beautiful trees and flowers around them. Above the porch of the bright, clean manor, hung a sign that read, “ELEANOR WEST’S HOME FOR WAYWARD CHILDREN: NO SOLICITATION, NO VISITORS, NO QUESTS”. 

Dipper and Mabel looked down to their belongings, then up at the new girl, who only had a small backpack and a rolling suitcase. She looked much more like a wayward child than they did, starting with the subtle things- the haunted and disassociating hazel eyes, the disheveled black hair, the way her fingers twitched when nobody was looking. Then there was the obvious- the pale skin, the torn dress that looked like it had once been bright as the sky and shimmered with the light of a thousand stars, but now was faded and destroyed. The dress was charred around the knees, with puffs on the shoulders that extended into silk sleeves along the arms, which looked just as ripped, as if something had burned it. She had white socks that reached up to almost her knees, and black pointe shoes. The girl also had double-pierced ears, with a two hoops on each side of her face, making her ears look smaller. She turned to look at the twins, slowly realizing that they were looking at her too. She pulled her dress down instinctively, as if it was too short, though it covered everything modestly. She looked them over, too, before quietly turning back towards the house and walking forward. Waddles went next, trying to sniff out the nearest source of food. Mabel and Dipper slowly followed. 

The children and pig entered the house, stopping to stare in awe at the elegance of the inside of the manor. All the furniture was antique, with floral print walls and polished wood floors, and a beautiful chandelier above them shaped like a flower in bloom. The girl stared at the chandelier, while Mabel and Dipper turned to watch the woman walking down the spiral staircase. 

The woman was elderly, probably in her early sixties, but stood tall and straight, as if her age did not affect her at all. She had her hair styled into a perm, and wore a rainbow sweater that looked similar to Mabel’s own, electric orange pants and a necklace of clashing stones. She definitely looked like someone with Mabel’s sense of fashion. 

“I love your sweater!” Mabel was the first one to speak- of course- as the girl turned to see the old woman too, her eyes widening at the horrible outfit. 

“Thank you, dear, yours is beautiful, too.” The woman said, referencing the knitted sweater of a hand, pointing towards Dipper that said He’s single! Dipper had refused to wear the sweater that matched (which had read She is too!), though he was certain Mabel had it stuffed in the bottom of one of the bags. 

The woman turned back towards the kids as she reached the bottom of the staircase. “Welcome to my home. I’m Eleanor West. Let me guess, Dipper, Mabel and Sinéad.” she pointed to the kids as she recited their names.

“Yeah!” Mabel replied, lifting her pig up. “And this is Waddles! He’s with us.”

“I see that.” Eleanor reached over and stroked Waddles’s head. “Did you get him on your travels?”

The twins looked at each other, wondering if she’d make them send him home. “Y-yeah.” Mabel replied. “I guess.”

“Oh. Is he a normal pig?”

“He is an intelligent and manly pig!” Mabel huffed. “He’s also married to a goat, if that’s what you mean.”

“Mabel…” Dipper trailed off, resisting the urge to facepalm. This was not going to help convince Ms. Eleanor that they weren’t crazy. 

“That is very special.” Eleanor said, surprising the twins. “I hope they’re happy together.”

“Yeah, they have a long-distance relationship but they’re still happy.”

Eleanor laughed a little, straightening up. “You remind me so much of a boy who was here… wow, many years ago now. He talked about his frog the same way.” She turned to Sinéad, who was twirling her red curls absent-mindedly while glaring at the necklace Eleanor wore. “What are you staring at?”

“The gemstones clash in meaning and appearance.” Sinéad replied in a thick irish accent, with an almost monotone delivery. “The Rose Quartzes symbolize love and caring, and the Amethysts protection and power. The Citrines are money and luck, and you seem to have opals of every kind, as well as glass. They clash horribly with your sweater, which in turn should not be worn with those pants. Your hair, also, could use an update.”

The twins were stunned into silence, but Eleanor only giggled. “I see you went to a Realm of High Logic.” She stepped back, so as to be able to face them all at once. “So, where did you all go?”

There was silence, and then Dipper replied, “Nowhere.”  
“Let’s not pretend, dear.” Eleanor sighed. “We’ve all been to places, some more imaginative than others, some more strange and wonderous, some darker and more dangerous. Which world is the real one is one of perspective. So, where did you go?”

Sinéad spoke first. “I went to Scamall.”

Eleaner tilted her head, her hair bouncing as she did so. “Oh. I believe I’ve heard of that one, yes. I didn’t realize they placed such importance on fashion.”

Sinéad nodded, looking down ather charred dress. “The peasants don’t, but I was the maid for Her Majesty Bidelia, and she was being dressed to make suit to Prince Cathán and please the Royal Court, so she and her maids had to be dressed just perfectly, just so. We had to dress her in everything perfectly, something I already loved to do.” Her voice broke a little, and she looked down at her dress. “We were only supposed to wear this dress while in the Court, due to Scamaillian laws. Then the Dragon came. I saved Bidelia, but I ended up here.”

The twins were silent, but Eleanor looked unperturbed, instead hugging the girl quickly, then pulling away and continuing to talk. “Yes, the last girl who went to Scamall was there when Bidelia was born, it’s nice to know she’s doing well. Scamall is a High-Logic, Moderate-Virtue World. Classic.” She turned again to the twins. “Now, where did you two go?”

The kids turned to each other, then back at her. They’d guessed by now that she didn’t want to cure them of some made-up disease, she believed them, trusted them, and wanted to help them. 

Maybe she could help them. 

“We went to Gravity Falls.” Dipper replied.


	2. Together

Chapter Two

It was easy to explain Gravity Falls, but it seemed to confuse Eleanor more than a city of rainbows did. “We didn’t go through a portal,” Dipper had shivered, answering Eleanor’s question. “We went by bus.”

“Our Grunkle had a portal, though. In the basement.” Mabel interjected. 

Dipper sighed. “But yeah, we stayed at our Grunkle’s Tourist Trap all Summer, fighting supernatural creatures that leaked out through a rift in time and space.”

“Then there was an incident.” Mabel shuddered, her smile uncharacteristically dropping for a few moments. “Um, the rift broke, and there may have been an apocalypse, but we fixed it! And then we got sent home for the school year and our parents didn’t… didn’t believe us.”

It was clear to everyone that the twins weren’t telling the full truth, but Eleanor seemed more puzzled by something else. “A town? In Oregon? Are you sure you weren’t taken somewhere else by doorway?”

“Ehh.” Dipper waved his hand a bit to signal he wasn’t entirely sure. 

“About 85% sure!” Mabel replied, brightening up again. 

“That’s very interesting.” Eleanor mumbled. “Usually the worlds are entered through doorways, which disappear after you return. Your world should have vanished.”

The twins exchanged meaningful looks that were missed by Eleanor, but not by Sinéad, who kept quiet. 

“Anyway, it seems your world is Neutral, with low Nonsense.” she turned to the kids again. “I have one free room and I can probably get Kade to room with you, Dipper, if-”

“No!” Dipper and Mabel objected, very loudly. Sinéad covered her ears instinctively, and Eleanor looked surprised. 

“Sorry,” Dipper added, more quietly, “But Mabel and I have always shared a room.”

“Please,” Mabel held Waddles up, as if hoping his adorableness combined with hers would sway the old lady. “Don’t separate us again.”

Eleanor considered, then sighed. “Of course I can do that. I don’t have any girls waiting for a roommate, so Sinéad, can you room with the twins until another girl comes? Normally I’d just give you a nice, quiet room, but after recent events… I’d rather not anybody be alone.”

Sinéad nodded and followed the lady and the twins as she led them down a hallway to a room. There were two beds, one on each side of the room, and Eleanor explained that she’d have an extra mattress called in for someone to sleep on, and it would be there after Group Therapy sessions- something the twins immediately knew they were not looking forward to. Eleanor then left them alone, telling them that Dinner was at six-thirty, and to be in the lunchroom by then, they’d find it if they asked. 

After the door slammed, Mabel started hanging posters and decorating the bed, filling up the drawers with her puffy sweaters. Dipper turned to Sinéad, who shrugged at him and said, “I’ll take the mattress. I’m used to sleeping on the floor.”

Dipper unpacked his belongings on the right side of the room, placing the mirror on a lone shelf below his books, in case Stan and Ford decided to call. Sinéad seemed to have almost no belongings, as she unpacked fancy dress after fancy dress, scowling at the workmanship, and placing them in folded piles by color. She finally pulled out a small bell, which immediately attracted Dipper and Mabel’s attention. It was crystalline, reflecting rainbows where the light bounced, with a handle made of what looked like sapphires. Sinéad carefully placed the bell on the floor, making sure not to ring it, then hid it behind her stacks of clothes. Dipper was planning on saying nothing and calling it a day, but that was, evidently, not Mabel’s idea. 

“What was that?” She asked loudly, causing Sinéad to jump. 

“N-nothing!” Sinéad muttered, her eyes facing forward and her gaze still, only her stumbling speech pattern betraying the idea she was nervous. 

“No, it was shiny and pretty!” Mabel replied, pointing to the place where Sinéad had hidden her bell. “What is it?”

Sinéad sighed. “It’s my bell. Her Majesty Bidelia would ring it three times, and if by the third time I held it, I would appear wherever she was. Her bell must have been destroyed in the fire, but she’ll have a new one made. She’ll call me… she has to…”

Mabel sensed that she’d crossed a line, something that rarely happened. “Um…” she lept over to Dipper’s side of the room and grabbed his mirror, holding it up. “This is a mirror we use to talk to our Grunkles! Watch!” she put her hand in one end, and the mirror rippled a little, and her hand didn’t poke out the other side.   
“Where is it?” Sinéad asked, surprised. 

“Wherever our Grunkles’ mirror is.” Mabel shrugged, pulling her arm out. “Grunkle Ford invented it so we could talk to each other without our parents tracing our phone calls. They just thought it was a mirror the glass popped out of, but we knew. We can also talk to them through it, but they look like they’re busy at the moment.”  
“So you can communicate through mirrors?”

“Yeah!” Mabel grinned, putting the mirror back. “Pretty cool, right?”

Sinéad nodded slowly, glancing at the clock. “We should find the dining hall. Who should we ask?”

“I saw a Keep Out sign down the hall! We can try there!” Mabel suggested. 

Dipper, who had been turning red from second-hand embarrassment this entire time, finally spoke up. “Mabel, a Keep Out sign usually means Keep Out.”

“Come on, Dipper, nobody wants to be alone!” Mabel elbowed him, then dragged him along. “Waddles, stay!”

Waddles laid down and rolled on his back, squealing and kicking his feet in the air. Sinéad slowly followed the twins on the way down, carefully watching her step and holding her charred dress down, as if she felt underdressed. Mabel made a mental note to make her a sweater later. 

They walked down until Mabel found the Keep Out sign, and threw the door open. “Surprise!” she yelled, causing the boy inside to fall backwards off of his chair, startled. “We’re your new classmates!”

The boy got up, looking thoroughly annoyed and a little mad. “Who the f- hell are you? Are you, like, eight?”

“Thirteen.” Mabel said, walking into the room. “And I said, we’re your new- Dipper what are you doing?”

Dipper had frozen, staring at all the books around him. There were so many, stacking to the ceiling and propping up a bed and a table, covered in beautiful fabric. If there wasn’t a pile of books or paper on the floor, the walls were lined with bookshelves, looking ready to burst. There were so many, Dipper nearly overloaded. Sinéad pushed him into the room slowly, and he startled and knocked into Mabel, making the two of them fall to the floor. Dipper apologized and stood; Mabel laughed and rolled over. 

“Sorry about my brother, he likes books.” Mabel explained. “I see you are also a book person.”

The boy muttered something about stupid kids, and stood up. “I’m Kade,” he introduced, “And you’re the new kids?”

“Yeah!” Mabel smiled. “And we’re not sure how to get to the Dining Hall, can you show us?”

Kade looked at the clock. “I guess I can. What are your names again?”

“I’m Mabel. I’m the fun one.” Mabel introduced. “That’s Sinéad, and this is Dipper. He’s the boring one.”

“I’m not boring!” Dipper groaned, looking up at the tall boy. “I’m the smart one.”

“And I have a grappling hook!” Mabel announced, pulling said weapon from beneath her sweater. 

Dipper felt like cursing, but stopped himself before he could. He sighed and tried to stay calm, “Mabel. How did you smuggle that past our parents?”

“I hid it in Waddles’s stuff.” Mabel replied. “It’s mine forever.”

Dipper looked back up to Kade apologetically. “Sorry about her.”

“Sorry about him.” Mabel imitated. 

Kade sighed. “Look, the kids here aren’t going to take to weapons very well. You may not want to take that out in front of them. In fact,” his face flashed full of memories, and he started to look worried, “They may not take to twins that well either.”

“Why?” Mabel asked, a hint of concern in her voice. “You can tell Dipper and I apart, right?”

Dipper wished she hadn’t said that, his face going red. Of course people could tell them apart, they weren’t identical. 

Kade seemed to sense this, though he said nothing. “No, it’s just that we lost a pair of twins a few weeks ago and… just don’t mention Jack and Jill, okay?”

“Jack and Jill,” Sinéad repeated behind them, and the twins turned in surprise, having almost forgotten she was there. She was standing off to the side, almost hidden by shadows, running her hands along the spines of the books on a pile next to her. “Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.”

“Yeah, that. Don’t mention that.” Kade’s face went white, and he started walking, while the others followed him. “We had an incident a few months back. We lost four students and a teacher- five if you count Nancy, but she returned home. Don’t worry, it’s not going to happen again. But a lot of our students were scarred. Here we are.”

They entered the Dining Hall, which looked like a normal cafeteria. There were students sitting at tables- overwhelmingly girls, so much so that Dipper had a split second of panic, wondering if his parents had signed them up for an all-girls’ school- but no, they wouldn’t do that. And Kade was there- and now Dipper saw three boys in the back, playing with their food. He sighed and followed Kade into line to pick up a lunch. Kade left to join the boys, and Dipper started to follow, before Mabel grabbed his shoulder. “Let’s go over there!” she said, pointing to a corner table where two young girls sat, about fifteen. They looked completely different- one had dark skin and curly hair that was a bright shade of green, and wore a long and flowing pink dress. The other girl had pale skin and short dark hair, a pair of glasses hooked onto her striped t-shirt. The first girl had dark brown eyes, while the other had bright blue. 

Mabel dragged Dipper over, as he barely managed to keep a hold of his tray. She waved to them, yelling, and pulled Dipper onto a seat next to her. “Hi! I’m Mabel!” She introduced. “And this is Dipper, my brother!”

The girls looked at them, and then the girl with green hair laughed. “Oh, so you’re the replacement twins!”

As the twins’ faces showed their confusion, the girl with dark hair elbowed the first girl. “Lerato! I told you, they’re not replacements! We just happened to get twins after…” she broke off and turned towards the kids. “Sorry about that, Lerato is a conspiracy theorist.”

“What do you expect from a High Logic Girl?” Lerato asked. 

“There’s that word again.” Dipper muttered. “What does it mean?”

“Well, we divide our worlds based on what they’re like.” The glasses girl replied. “Lerato’s world valued logic, and was very nice, so it was a High Logic, Virtuous world. My world was confused and had no laws of reality, and was quite mean, so I had a High Nonsense, Wicked world.”

“That’s right.” Lerato replied. “I went to a magical, beautiful undersea Kingdom of Mermaids and Selkies, filled with silk and pearls and schools of fish, with houses of anemones and palaces built on the sea floor, with the sky so high above us it would take a month’s journey to reach it, our surroundings lit by glowing fish employed by the Merqueen. Tasia went to an evil world where a despotism tried to destroy all ideas of order among the lowly and used the poor only as entertainment, while a forest outside the Government’s reach was filled with evil trees that suffocated anyone who came near and ponds filled with murky whirlpools and fish that could eat you whole, and even beyond that mountains that entrapped you in them, waiting to feast on your rotting flesh until you killed yourself of hopelessness and self-hate.” She took a dramatic deep breath, then looked again at the twins. “So, where did you go?”

“Oregon.”

The two girls looked at each other in surprise, then turned back. “You mean,” Tasia asked carefully, “You went to a magical world called... Oregon?”

Mabel shrugged and Dipper let out an, “Eh?”

“Well,” Lerato scratched her hair, “Either Eleanor’s has lowered her expectations, or I’ve been doing geography all wrong.”

“What kind of door did you go through?” Tasia asked. 

“Tasia fell through a hunting pit,” Lerato interrupted, excitedly, “And I waded into the water at the exact right time to be swept underwater into the MerKingdom. How did you reach Oregon?”  
“By bus!” Mabel replied. “It was smelly and gross and I found a nickel! I spent it on Candy though. Also I got a pig!”

Dipper felt sorry for the two girls, so he started to explain. “We went to a town in Oregon called Gravity Falls.”

Lerato once again interrupted. “Gravity Falls? I think I heard that before!”

“Uh, yeah!” Mabel laughed nervously. “It’s home to the Mystery Shack, the greatest Tourist Trap in all of a hundred mile radius!” 

“There was a lot of supernatural stuff there.” Dipper continued. 

“Like, unicorns?” Tasia asked. 

“Ugh, unicorns are jerks.” Mabel informed her. “They’re full of crap, trust me.”

“We mean, Gremloblins, Manotaurs, Gnomes, Fairies, Zombies-”

“Clone boy bands!” Mabel interjected. “We met the 8 1/2th President of the United States, too!”

“And went back in time, on a separate occasion.” Dipper replied. 

“And we also survived the apocalypse!” Mabel added. “You know, no biggie.”

The girls looked at each other, then Lerato shrugged. “Seems like a Nonsense world to me.”

“Trust me, it was.” Dipper shrugged. “We also found out our Great-Uncle had a secret twin in the Portal in the Basement who was secretly the Author of the Journals.”

“Your Great-Uncle was a twin, too?” Tasia asked. 

“Yeah.” Mabel nodded. “We think it’s a family thing.” 

“I see.” Lerato said. “So why did you ever leave? I got separated from my hunting party and had to fight a Whale Shark, and it dragged me to the surface, where I was taken away by surfers. Tasia was kidnapped by the despotism who ran tests on her until they had no use for her and discarded her back where she came from.”

“Gee, thanks for that.” Tasia muttered. 

“So, what made you leave?”

“It was the end of summer, our parents wouldn’t let us miss school.”

Lerato sighed, “You guys are boring.”

“Sinéad might be more interesting.” Mabel tried to wave to her, but Sinéad was already sitting with a group of giggling girls. She turned back to Lerato. “So, while you were in the MerKingdom, did you ever meet a Merman named Mermando?”

“You’re gonna have to be more specific,” Lerato shrugged, “It’s a very common name. It’s like their version of John.”

As Mabel and Lerato talked, Dipper resigned himself to silence as he picked at his mashed potatoes and chicken. Tasia shot him a sympathetic glance from behind Lerato, and also started to eat.   
Dipper glanced at the clock. “Group Therapy” was at eight. It wasn’t something he was looking forward to, but it might be nice to get it over with. The faster he “recovered”, the sooner he could start trying to figure out what went wrong.


	3. Group Therapy Session

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I realized there's going to be a lot more OCs than I thought, and some people reading this haven't read the book this is crossing over with, so here are a complete list of characters who are NOT OCs.
> 
> -Anyone from Gravity Falls  
> -Eleanor  
> -Kade  
> -Jack and Jill  
> -Christopher  
> -Amanda  
> -Seraphina  
> -(May possibly be mentioned, but won't appear) Nancy, Lundy, Sumi, Loriel
> 
> My OCs so far are  
> -Sinéad  
> -Lerato  
> -Tasia  
> -Isa  
> -Dilys
> 
> Anyway, you all should read the book "Every Heart a Doorway". It's really great and will probably explain a lot of things I reference in here.

Chapter Three

 

Group Therapy was entirely  _ not  _ what Dipper and Mabel expected. 

Honestly, they should have been used to that by now. When their parents made them do Group Therapy before, the other participants had been astounded at how insane the twins’ “made-up” world was; here, they were amazed at how normal it was. Plus, they had been constantly told, “Your Summer isn’t real, it didn’t happen.” And that was the opposite of what the Group was taught. 

First, the Therapist arrived: she was young, in her late twenties or early thirties, with sparking silver eyes and long blonde hair. She introduced herself as Dilys. 

“I’m new here, so please don’t be mad if I forget your names!” She said. “I once went to a High Logic, Virtuous world called Idwal, and I was also once a student here.”

“How long ago were you in Idwal?” Sinéad asked. 

“Oh, about twenty years.” Dilys shrugged. “Spent about twenty years there, too.” 

She paused, then turned back to the children. “Today we’ll be talking to the Nonsense worlds’ children. That would be…” Dilys started listing off children’s names from her attendance sheet, then fell to the bottom. “Oh, and our new children, Mabel and…” she looked up, at the young boy. “Dipper?”

Dipper nodded. 

“That’s an interesting name. Does it have any significance?” 

This time, Mabel looked to Dipper for permission before blurting. Dipper shook his head, involuntarily pushing his bangs down over his birthmark, and Mabel looked up. “It’s a nickname, actually. I named ‘im.”

Dilys nodded, obviously catching the drift that Dipper didn’t want to talk, and turned around. “Tasia? You went to a Wicked Nonsense world. A rare case, but not impossible. Would you tell us about it?”

Tasia looked up from her phone, blinking. “Oh, er, Kakía? It was definitely nonsense, with the Pillars of Order being reserved for the Government, leaving the lower class to live in chaos. I fell in with the lower class, and they flocked to me, sensing the order that came from my world in which its Pillars were hidden from anyone who might displace them.” she shrugged. “I may or may not have founded a rebellion. Unfortunately, that caught the attention of the Government, and they captured me, ran tests and then sent me back. Managed to cure my eyesight in one eye, too, but not the other.”

“That’s very interesting.” Dilys replied, sitting in a chair and smiling at the girl. “So, may I ask, why do you want to return?”

“I have to help them rescue the Pillars of Order. The Government will either hide them or destroy them, and if they’re destroyed than the world will fall into eternal chaos. I can’t let that happen.”

“Alright.” Dilys tried to prompt her further, “How long were you in Kakía?”

“Three years for me.” Tasia replied. “Three months for my parents. It’s been six months already since I came back. They’ve probably given up on me by now.”

“Don’t worry, Tasia! You’ll find your door again eventually!” a kid yelled. “The Nonsense worlds tend to call again.”

“Just because you’ve been to Guster three times, Isa, doesn’t mean-” another girl started, but Dilys held up a hand. 

“Please don’t interrupt.” she said, with a tone so authoritative nobody dared to disobey. “We’re focused on being polite and supportive here.  _ Not _ judging, jealous or bullying. Do we understand?”

There was silence. Dilys smiled brightly and turned to the kid who’d spoken first. “Isa, why don’t you go next?”

“Sure!” the child brightened, twirling their dark hair. “I first flew to Guster when I was ten.”

The other kids groaned, having heard this story a million times. Dilys once again shushed them. “Continue.”

“Well, my family and I were hiking, and I jumped off a rock when they weren’t looking and flew to the land of Guster, where things that were lost in the air found their way.” Isa replied. “It was a very aerial-focused world, with no ground in sight. It took weeks to get used to floating everywhere, even sleeping, and I had to train myself to find a safe place to sleep where I wouldn’t run into anything. I became friends with the citizens and knighted by the Monarch for defeating a Dragon. But then I found a mountaintop and landed. I had forgotten how to stand still, though, and fell down. I managed to survive, but I couldn’t fly again. I was found by climbers, and it turned out I had been gone six months and travelled halfway across the country. The second time was when I was twelve, when the Dragon returned…”

Isa kept talking for a while, drawing Mabel, Dipper and Sinéad’s rapt attention, but bored looks and shuffling feet from everyone else. They were a great storyteller, with inflections for when the Dragon challenged them and when the Monarch made them an honorary princess, since the Monarch’s child was her age and they were to wed when they turned sixteen. However, while killing the Dragon, it had pushed them down and sent them back to the ground again. Eleanor had found them then and suggested the school, but their parents had denied, thinking that it would give her an excuse to go missing again. However, when they were fourteen, they returned again and saved Guster from its war-loving neighbor, Zephyr. By this point they had gained their reputation as a warrior princess, and was to stay in the castle and study for their future as the Monarch, until they were captured and once again returned to Earth. This time, her parents had called Eleanor again and asked her to take them away. 

“That’s very interesting.” Dilys said as Isa finally finished. “I take it you believe you will return?”

“I believe they will find me again when I turn sixteen.” they responded. “Then I will be a Monarch.”

“Well, what do you think drew you to Guster?” Dilys asked patiently. 

“First of all, my desire to be free of all the restrictions my parents and older sisters placed on me, to be a perfect little girl who obeyed and married a nice rich boy who could keep the family business.” Isa shrugged. “Then maybe my desire to be known not as a girl or a boy, but as a hero without a gender- of course, I didn’t understand that until I was fourteen and realized why I felt so good being called Monarch or Warrior instead of Queen or Princess. And the citizens of Guster supported me, as almost all of them were genderless, and the Monarch started calling me the Warrior instead of the Warrior Princess. I didn’t get a chance to tell my parents, but I’m positive they wouldn’t have accepted me. Then there was the fact I wanted to be a hero instead of a damsel…”

Mabel started to get bored as Isa talked, and started poking Dipper’s arm. “Hey. Hey Dip!”

“Yeah?” Dipper whispered back, looking over with an annoyed expression. 

“Do you think she’ll have time for us?”

“Of course she will, she’s just letting Isa talk because it’s therapeutic for her.”

“Oh.” she paused as Dipper turned back around to hear Isa’s speech about politics, before Mabel poked him again. 

“What?”

“How do you know that?”

“It’s really obvious, Mabel.”

“Oh. Do you think you’d want to go to Guster?”

“Not really. Sounds like it attracts a lot of trouble.”

“I dunno. I’d like to fly.”

“I bet there’s something in Gravity Falls that’ll make you fly.”

“You’ll have to let me know. Is it in the Journal?”

Dipper paused. “Mabel. The Journals were destroyed, remember?”

“Do you think Waddles would like to fly?”

“He’s a  _ pig _ , Mabel, he’s not gonna-”

“Dipper? Mabel? Is there something you’d like to say?”

The twins looked up, guilty expressions on their faces, as Dilys stared them down. 

“No, ma’am.” Mabel and Dipper replied in unison, though Mabel seemed a bit more angry at being caught than shameful. 

The other kids muttered to themselves, and Dilys turned to Isa. “Isa, are you alright if we move on?”

Isa nodded and started twirling their hair again. Dilys looked back at the twins. “Now, what’s your world like?”

The twins looked to each other, wondering where to start. “Well, er,” Dipper began. “It all started when our parents sent us off to our Grunkle’s tourist trap for the summer.”

“And then did you fall into a cupboard?” a girl asked. 

“Or a broken floorboard?” a boy added. 

“Or down a railing?” another girl questioned. 

Lerato snorted and spoke for them. “Nope! They went by bus!”

“Uh, yeah.” Dipper was starting to feel uncomfortable, as the kids were looking incredulously at him and Mabel. “We were at the Mystery Shack, when I found a journal in the woods. It catalogued all the supernatural events that happened in the town, from gnomes to zombies-”

“To hot mermen and cloned boybands!” Mabel interjected. “So we started investigating, and then our Great Uncle opened a portal in the basement! It could have torn apart the  _ Universe! _ ”

“And then you got sucked in?” a boy, playing with a flute that looked dangerously like a bone, asked. 

“Nope!” Mabel continued. “See, Dipper wanted be to close the portal cause it was dangerous, but Grunkle Stan wanted to open it because spoilers so I was in charge of the button and let it open and then BOOM. THE AUTHOR OF THE JOURNALS, GRUNKLE STAN’S TWIN BROTHER!”

“You’re telling it all wrong, let me do it!” Dipper groaned. “It turned out that Grunkle Ford was the Author, and he and our Grunkle Stan had had a falling out when they were kids, and Grunkle Stan pretended to be Grunkle Ford when he was sucked into another dimension.”

“And you’re sure you didn’t go there?” Isa questioned. 

“Nope!” Mabel shrugged. “But then we met… AN EVIL TRIANGLE!”

“Shut up, Mabel.” Dipper elbowed her. “Grunkle Ford had previously been tricked into making the portal by a demon, who then broke the rift and let all of his chaos into the town, completely causing the apocalypse.”

“I was trapped in a bubble.” Mabel interrupted, shrinking down a little, her smile starting to become more forced. “Where I made my own world.”

“How long were you there?” Dilys asked, thinking the Bubble World was more likely Mabel’s world than a town in Oregon, even if said town had Gnomes and Demons. 

“About two weeks, then Dipdop rescued me.” Mabel replied. 

“Three days, Mabel.”

“Ugh, sorry. Words are hard.”

“Then we fought Bill- the demon- and we won! Then we went home for the school year, and our Grunkles sailed away to find weird things in the arctic.”

“And your parents didn’t believe all the weird things that happened in Oregon?” Lerato clarified, still looking a little skeptical. 

“Nope.” Mabel shrugged. “And when our Grunkles confirmed the story, they just assumed that something bad had happened to us and this was our way of coping, so they sent us off to therapy.”

“And it got worse when the kids at school found out.” Dipper added. “They always thought we were weird, and this was just extra confirmation. And it’s not like the school actually did anything about it- the bully kids’ parents were usually rich and important.”

“Or lawyers.” Mabel added with a hostile tone. “Or just couldn’t be bothered into disciplining their little brats.”

“And then…” Dipper and Mabel looked at each other, considering, then Dipper started talking again. “Well, and then, Ms. Eleanor found out about us and convinced our parents to transfer us here.”

“Eleanor does always seem to find people at the right time.” Kade said, which made Dipper and Mabel jump. He hadn’t spoken the entire therapy session. “If you’d been stuck there for any longer, I bet you would’ve just run back to your Uncle’s tourist trap.”

“Oh, we couldn’t!” Mabel interrupted, then added hastily, “He’s the in arctic, so Soos runs the Shack now. He’s great but he probably would’ve told our parents where we were. He’s not good at secrets.”

The other kids nodded, but Kade looked unconvinced. Still, he didn’t press further, and Dilys sensed the twins were done opening up for the night, moving on to another kid. 

Dipper and Mabel sighed. So far, so good. This was going  _ much  _ better than the therapy back home. 


	4. Lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I've put off posting this chapter long enough. Basically here starts where I try to dive into the Pines Twins' mental state after Weirdmageddon. I'm trying to portray them as realistically as I can, but I'm open to criticism if someone feels I'm misrepresenting what's going on. Thank you all for being so patient!
> 
> Also, as a sidenote, I've updated the description to include the playlist I made for this fic. If you want to check it out, feel free! :)

Chapter Four

 

Grunkle Stan and Ford called when the twins got back to the room. 

“Yeah, everything’s fine here!” Mabel replied, starting to chuck candies through the mirror to her Grunkles. “You’re never gonna believe it, but the people at school actually believe us about Gravity Falls!”

“Of course they do, they’re just as crazy as we are!” Stan laughed, tossing her a candy back. 

“Stanley, we’re not ‘crazy.’” Ford looked annoyed. “We’re all mostly mentally sound.”

“And this is our roomie Sinéad!” Mabel said, turning the mirror around to face the girl, who was knitting an underdress for her Court Apparel, and glared at the twins for a bit before getting back to it. “She went to a Rainbow Cloud world of magic!”

“Heh, maybe you should take a turn there!” Ford laughed as Mabel turned the mirror back to her and Dipper. 

“I don’t think so, it’s a High Logic world and I’m an Agent of Chaos.” Mabel shrugged, hoping her words would confuse and impress her Great-Uncles. 

“I might like it there, though.” Dipper said, looking up from the book Ford had pushed through the mirror. “It seems like a very political place, if a little girly.”

“Yeah, and Dipper just loves boring politics. That’s why you listened to Isa’s rambles.”

“The politics of a Nonsense world are very interesting!”

“Look at me, I’m a nerd who read  _ The Odyssey  _ for fun! That’s what you sound like.”

“ _ You read  _ the Odyssey _ too! _ ”

“Whoa, kids!” Stan yelled. “Let’s calm down a little!”

The twins looked at each other, realizing just how heated their argument had gotten. 

“Sorry,” they said to each other. 

“These last few months have been… stressful.” Dipper explained. 

“They have for all of us, kiddo.” Stan said. “Although I guess hunting Giant Squid for fun’ll do that to you. You sure you don’t want to climb through the mirror over here?”

“Aside from the occasional Kraken things are relatively okay, if you stay belowdeck.” Ford added. “And your parents wouldn’t be able to track you here.”

The twins looked to each other, then back to their Grunkles. “Not yet.” Dipper said. “We have some studying to catch up on. And the people at this school are really great.”

“Plus, our parents would  _ totally  _ know we were with you. It’s not much of a secret that we love each other so much!” Mabel smiled. “Do you guys want to say Hi to Waddles? He’s asleep but I can wake him up!”

“No, it’s fine.” Ford said as Stan grumbled about how stupid the pig was. “But you can come with us whenever you want. And we’ll shoot anyone who’s mean to you.”

“Yeah, and that’s why you’re not going to be invited for the Holidays.” Dipper shrugged, and the family laughed before they said their goodbyes and hung up the Mirror. 

Mabel went back to her side of the room, crawling into her bed and saying, “Goodnight, Dipper!”

Dipper wished her the same, and they tried to ignore Sinéad’s constant muttering and clanging as she tried to make her outfit less awful. 

Once Sinéad finally went to sleep, Mabel whispered across the room, “Dipper?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think they really want to help us?”

_ No,  _ he wanted to say,  _ They don’t believe us and never will.  _ But he didn’t say it, because that was the paranoia talking. 

“Of course, Mabel. Ms. Eleanor went to a world of her own, remember?”

“What if she’s lying?”

“She’s not. People like her don’t lie.”

“Everyone lies, Dipper.”

This was not making Dipper feel better. “You’re grumpy when you’re tired. Go to sleep.”

“You’re grumpy all the time.” Mabel quipped, then turned over to take a nap. 

 

It was several nights later when Dipper awoke at 3:00am to the sound of footsteps. He was drowsy for a second, then jolted straight up, whipping around to see Mabel leave the room. 

“Oh no,” he muttered as he put on Wendy’s hat and started running after her. “Oh  _ no! _ ”

He looked into the hallway and saw her turning a bend, running to catch up. He could  _ not  _ let this happen again, not at school!

He turned the bend and ran smack dab into an opening door. 

Kade closed the door, apologizing, as Dipper jumped to his feet. “I heard footsteps,” he said, and Dipper noticed he had a metal pole in his hands. 

“It’s Mabel! She’s wandering off! We have to find her!” Dipper said, running past the boy and moving to try and locate his twin. Kade followed, still keeping the pole in hand. The boys ran down the hallway, until Dipper saw a familiar purple nightgown flapping as Mabel turned another corner. 

Dipper finally managed to catch up, as Mabel had wandered into a dead end. She looked confused, running her hand against it. Dipper approached her warily, calling her name until she turned around, a confused look in her eyes. 

“The wall won’t move.” she said hesitantly, looking like she was trying to figure out why it wouldn’t work. 

“No, it won’t.” Dipper told her calmly. He turned to Kade, but the boy looked almost as confused as Mabel. He’d never had to deal with this before, was he supposed to encourage her or discourage her? He had no clue. 

“It’s a very stubborn wall.” Mabel said, then looked at Dipper. “Heh. You’ve got Wendy’s hat.”

“Yeah, I do.” Dipper said. 

“What, did you steal it from her? Your obsession is getting freaky, brobro!”

“No, she gave it to me, at the end of summer.”

“Summer’s never over. It won’t be over as long as I want it to stay.”

Dipper was starting to panic. “Mabel, you’re not in your bubble anymore.”

“Course I am.”

She must have had a scary dream again. Or maybe a happy one. He had  _ no idea _ what to do. 

“Mabel, um, can you do something for me?”

Mabel’s face brightened. “Do you want a puppy? Or a laser? Or a  _ puppy laser _ ?”

“No! Can you sit down and…” Dipper clenched his fist, trying to remember what his Mom had done. “Look at me and count backwards from a hundred?” Was that what Mom had done for Mabel or for him? Why was he so  _ bad _ at helping her?

“Ugh, sure. You’re so weird sometimes.”

As Mabel counted, and looked down at the floor, bored, Dipper slowly backed away towards Kade. Kade’s confusion had dropped, and he instead looked on with pity. “Is this a side effect of her Bubble World?”

“Yeah.” Dipper sighed. “It’s happened twice before, right after she wakes up. She confuses her dreams with reality. We think it developed as a result of her being trapped in a bubble. She lost track of time and built her own world, and it startled her when she was jolted from it, though the reaction was delayed. She didn’t start showing signs until we left Gravity Falls.”

“In the town, everything was still weird.” Kade suggested. “Then she’s pushed back into reality and expected to deal with it. You’re not doing too well either, are you?”

“Um, why?”

“You asked her to do something that is typically used to calm down from a panic attack.”

Dipper bit his lip and tried not to think of Bill’s laughter or the fire burning around him, or being chased by monsters for three days straight with little hope of ever finding his family. He tried not to think of the one time a kid in school had drawn the Illuminati symbol on a window as a joke and Dipper had subsequently started to panic, until the School Nurse and Mabel managed to calm him down. He tried not to think of all the therapists and students who had said, “It’s just your imagination. None of this was real. Can you tell us what  _ really  _ happened?”

To answer Kade, he simply replied, “It’s hard surviving the apocalypse and going to school a week later.”

Kade nodded. “I know how that feels. After spending years in Prism, I had to get up back in my body from the second I’d vanished and try to convince my parents I’d gone to a magical world and become Goblin Prince. They just thought I was being a stupid girl playing pretend.”

Dipper looked up at the boy so fast his hat almost fell off. “They thought you were a girl?”

“Everyone did, even me for a while.” Kade shrugged. “Even the fairies. They sent me back once they realized I was a boy who only looked like a girl outside.”

Dipper had no idea what to say. “Um, same. I mean, same for me. Except the fairies thing, that really sucks.”

Kade laughed. “Yeah, it does.” he looked down at Dipper again, still smiling. “You just remember, you’re a boy, no matter what anyone says. Alright?”

Dipper nodded, letting himself smile a little. 

“Dipper?”

Dipper looked up to see Mabel, looking confused again. “Where are we?”

Dipper walked up to her. “The Real World, Mabel.”

“Who’s to say what’s real?” she asked, sadly. “It’s a bit unfair to those who belong in another real world.”

Dipper gave her a hug. “You’re starting to sound like me.”

“I don’t wanna do that, you’re a nerd.”

There was a pause, then Mabel hugged him tighter, crying.

“I’m sorry!”

“It’s not your fault.” Dipper told her. “It’s not your fault, Mabel. It’s  _ his. _ ”

This was all his fault. 

 

The next day Mabel was back to her normal self- at least to the other kids. She smiled, she laughed, she forced herself into every conversation and tried to make friends with all the teachers and students. Amanda went so far as to tell her friends she didn’t think Mabel went anywhere at all, and that she and Dipper had been sent as spies to make sure nobody repeated Jack and Jill’s mistakes. Even Kade thought that the events of the night before had been forgotten. Dipper knew better though. He saw her forced smile, her awkward laughter, her staring off into space during class. Waddles also seemed to know something was wrong, as he made an attempt to follow her to class every time someone opened their dorm-room door. Eventually, during their break, Dipper dragged Mabel back to their dorm. She picked up her pig and held him, sitting on her bed and staring off into space. Dipper sat next to her, and she turned to him, smiling again. “Hey, brobro! What’s up?”

“You’re upset.” Dipper informed her, and the smile faded somewhat. “What’s up?”

“Nothing’s  _ up _ , Dipper!” Mabel grinned again. “Everything’s fine!”

“You don’t have to pretend, Mabel. We’re twins, remember?”

Mabel sighed, then frowned, running her hands across Waddles’s back. “Dipper? Are we really here?”

So he’d been right. She was still confused about their reality. “Yeah, of course.”

“Are… are  _ you _ really here?” Mabel turned to him, tears brimming in her eyes. 

“Yeah. I’m here.” Dipper said, and Mabel hugged him again, still crying. 

“I don’t know what’s real anymore, Dipper. For all I know I could still be in my Bubble and this was all a dream.”

“I know. I know it’s hard.” Dipper said. “I freeze up everytime I see a triangle, and I feel like I can’t look anyone in the eye and say I trust them, and…” he trailed off, realizing something. “Mabel, have you been taking your medication?”

Silence. 

“Mabel…”

“It’s not my fault, okay? I left em at home and Mom and Dad haven’t sent them.”

“Mabel, we’ve been here a  _ week _ . How long have you not been taking them?”

Dipper pulled out of the hug when Mabe refused to answer, and looked at her expression. “Mabel. We went through an  _ apocalypse _ . We’re not gonna be okay immediately.”

Mabel nodded, still crying. She hugged him again. “Thanks for being there, Dipper.”

Dipper held them in the hug until he stopped crying. He wasn’t anymore okay then she was, but he had to stay strong for her. 

There was no way he was gonna let her know that he was just as bad at this as she was. 


	5. Illusions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that these chapters are coming so late, it takes a while to write! Thank you for your patience! :) Again, tell me if I'm representing something wrong and I'll change it.

Chapter Five

 

Dipper looked up, blinking rapidly, as the teacher asked a question. He hadn’t been paying attention. What class was this anyway?

“Er, five?”

The other kids groaned, and the teacher sighed. “No, Dipper, the Battle of Yorktown was not fought in the year 5. Can anyone else answer?”

Dipper hid his face under his hat as Isa boredly answered. When the teacher had turned back to the board, he looked back down at the phone in his hands. Eleanor’s place had pretty good WiFi, but he still hesitated to use it in case she knew how to track his browsing history. The last thing he needed was questions about why he was googling things about the town he’d just been in. He didn’t want her to think he’d been faking or anything. 

Mabel looked at him sympathetically as she continued to knit under the table. The teachers tolerated this, as it kept her from staring off into space or talking too loud in the middle of class, but Dipper could still see the teacher give her a disapproving glance every few minutes. Lerato was in the back watching her, occasionally whispering to Tasia, betting on how much of the sweater Mabel could get finished by the time class was over. Kade stared off into space, paying about as much attention as Dipper. Nobody yet had noticed him on his phone in the middle of class. 

He didn’t yet want to search the obvious, instead opting to search articles on demonic possession, mysterious towns and apocalyptic events. Some blog over on the east coast seemed to be the only one talking about Weirdmageddon- it appeared that the news going to outside towns had censored Shandra Jimenez’s broadcasts during Weirdmageddon, and the blogger had been one of the few people who saw it, after managing to dig it up on the internet, but nobody was taking  _ him _ seriously. Dipper scrolled through, before he heard the bell ring and packed up his materials. Math class was next, something he wasn’t looking forward to. As he walked towards the classroom, swinging his bag over his shoulder, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned, and Mabel pulled him into another room, waiting for everyone to pass by. 

“We’re gonna be late to class.” Dipper whispered, as Mabel shushed him. 

As soon as the students moved passed, Mabel turned towards her brother. He had a panicked thought- was she hallucinating again? She seemed very on edge. “Dipper,” she said, “I found  _ this _ in my bag.”

She pulled out a small top, wooden and painted yellow. Dipper looked at it curiously taking it from her. “It’s pretty.” he said, confused. 

“Look at it.” Mabel said. 

Dipper looked, noticing a dark pink outline around the flat surface. With a start, he realized that it was in the shape of a shooting star. 

“I-it’s not yours?” he asked. 

Mabel shook her head. “Check your bag.” 

Dipper did, and pulled out a blue top, decorated with the pine tree. He spun it on a table, and it toppled over. “Who’s idea was this?”

“Dipper,” Mabel continued, pressing her point, “We didn’t tell anybody here about our symbols.”

Dipper nodded, having come to the same realization. “Are you sure it’s not from Grunkle Ford or Grunkle Stan?”

“I think I would have noticed them chucking this at us.” Mabel replied. “So unless Waddles learned how to make wooden artifacts…”

“Maybe they found it online.” Dipper suggested, knowing immediately that it was a stupid suggestion. “Like, maybe someone posted the wheel on the internet and someone made a connection? Maybe it’s one of Lerato’s conspiracy theories.”

“Dipper, there’s  _ no way _ they could know this.” Mabel told him. “Do you think the Wheel would just  _ happen _ to be on the internet? Grunkle Ford was the first person to care about that mysterious prophecy thing, and nobody in Gravity Falls would talk about Weirdmageddon under threat of arrest.”

Dipper sighed, looking more at his top. “I wonder if Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford got these.”

“You don’t think…” Mabel said, then trailed off. 

“What?”

“You don’t think it’s  _ him _ ?”

“No! Mabel, Stan defeated him, remember? He’s gone. He’s not coming back.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.” Mabel said, though she sounded unconvinced. 

She paused, then said, “I think I’ll just go back to our room. I don’t feel like class today.”

Dipper wanted to argue, wanted to remind her that classwork was important and that she couldn’t shut herself away in her room, but to be honest, he just wanted to hide, too. These tops were unsettling, and he had a bad feeling in his stomach. So he nodded, following Mabel. She slid her hand into his, as they walked past the hallway, ducking into the shadows whenever they heard footsteps, so as to avoid questions. They walked up to their room, and froze in place when they saw the door wide open. 

“Sinéad?” Mabel called, breaking away from her twin and entering the room, swinging the door wide open to reveal it empty, and her eyes went wide. “ _ Waddles _ ?”

Dipper walked in, bracing himself for whatever the pig had done, only to see the room was distinctly undisturbed. In fact, Waddles was nowhere to be seen. 

“Waddles!” Mabel yelled, checking under the bed and in the bookshelf. “Waddles, this isn’t funny! Don’t do this to me!”

“I’ll tell Ms. Eleanor.” Dipper said numbly. “He can’t have gotten far, right?” 

Mabel looked up at Dipper, blinking away tears. “Dipper, you don’t get it. He was one of the last things I had from… from Gravity Falls. He’s  _ gone. _ ”

“He’s not gone, Mabel, we’ll find him.” Dipper reassured her, walking up and giving her a quick side-hug. “He just wandered off, he’s a pig.”

“This is my fault. I should have taken him to class with me.”

“No, Mabel, it’s no one’s fault.”

“Everything’s my fault, Dipper. All of this happened because of me.” 

“No, it didn’t, Mabel. Calm down. You’re going to panic.”

Mabel took a deep breath, before breaking away from Dipper and going to her bed, curling up and staring blankly ahead of her. “It’s all my fault.”

 

They made lost posters, dropped them into the Grunkle’s mirror (in case Waddles somehow made it across the country, the idea of which eluded Dipper but not Mabel), planted them around school. Eleanor and the teachers placed them around the neighboring town. Mabel stayed quiet, barely speaking up in class, only just finishing her homework before crawling back into bed and rocking back and forth, talking to someone who wasn’t there. Dipper tried to comfort her, tried to cheer her up, and sometimes it would work. She would smile, she’d giggle, she’d shove him off the bed and call him a nerd. But she’d wake up the next morning just as depressed as before, sometimes skipping classes in favor of sleeping. 

“We need to talk.” Lerato said, leaning against the wall as Dipper walked out of the classroom. 

“Bout what?”

Lerato sighed. “Your sister.”

Dipper paused, then shrugged, trying to walk away from the confrontation. “She lost her pig, and she’s upset. Nothing to say.”

“Listen,” Lerato walked up, keeping pace with the smaller teen. “We all have something from home that keeps us connected. Tasia has her resistance bracelet, Isa has her air-book, I’ve got this-” she held up the pearl necklace she wore, which shimmered in the low lighting, “Glows in the dark. Very handy while hunting at the bottom of the ocean. We all have something, and Mabel has her pig. She loses her pig, she loses trace of her home.” she sighed. “To be honest, this is probably the best case scenario. You guys can still go back to Gravity Falls next summer. We have no idea if or when we’ll get back to our homes. If we lost our stuff, we’d probably be much worse.”

Dipper avoided her gaze, staring towards the ground. “Sure.”

“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is…” she sighed. “I might have a way to track him.”

Dipper looked up, his eyes set. “Why didn’t you just start with that?”

“I like to talk.” Lerato shrugged. “Have your sister meet me and Tasia by Dining Hall after Lights Out. We’ll start from there.”

 

Dipper walked slowly into their room, to see Mabel leaning against the wall, listening to music with her headphones. She seemed, distracted, confused, as she hummed along with the music. 

“Mabel?” Dipper called as Sinéad walked in behind him, her dress swaying as she swung her bag over to where her mattress was. 

Mabel looked up, taking the headphones off. “Dipper? That’s you?”

Dipper nodded and sat next to her, sliding his bag across the floor to where his bed was. “What’s wrong?”

“I heard voices.” Mabel sighed, staring at the bedspread. “I thought it was you, but when you didn’t show up, and I couldn’t tell what you were saying, so I put my music on, and I heard you over the music.” she still refused to meet Dipper’s eyes, kicking her feet aimlessly. “I’m hallucinating again, I guess.”

Dipper sighed, putting his arm around his twin. “This wasn’t your fault.”

“Yeah, it was.”

“No, Mabel, it’s  _ not _ .”

“ _ Yes it is! _ ” Mabel yelled, startling Dipper, as she turned to face him, tears streaming down her face as she exploded in anger. “It’s all because of me! The Rift didn’t crack in my backpack, Dipper! I gave it to him!  _ I gave it to Bill _ !”

There was silence, until Dipper simply said, “What?”

Mabel kept yelling, oblivious to Sinéad’s discomfort or Dipper’s shock. “Yeah! It was me. I wanted a little more summer, because I’m selfish. I’m selfish and awful and didn’t think. Blendin came and told me to give him the Rift, and he could make summer last forever! I didn’t  _ think _ ! I didn’t  _ ask _ ! So I gave him the Rift, I played right into his trap! He shattered it, he started Weirdmageddon! It’s  _ all my fault _ !” At ‘fault’, Mabel broke into a sob, putting her head in her hands and bawling, her weeping breaking the silence that had filled the room. 

After a second, she felt an arm around her, and then another, as Dipper pulled her into a hug, trying not to cry, saying, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. This isn’t your fault. I made you feel abandoned, made you weak enough to accept Bill’s offer. If anything, it’s his fault. He tricked you, Mabel. He waited until you were weak enough to accept his offer. It’s all because of him.”

Mabel looked up, her eyes red, as Dipper kept talking. “It’s going to be fine, Mabel. We’re going to find Waddles, and we’re going to get back to Gravity Falls. You’ll see, it’ll be even better than when we left it. And everyone will be there- Candy, Grenda, Wendy, Soos, Pacifica, Gideon, even Toby Determined will still be there. It’s going to be great, Mabel, and they’ll all be there to see you. And they’ll all be so happy.”

Mabel cried some more, as Dipper talked on and on about what they’d find in the Falls, his words keeping her calm, keeping her grounded. 

Neither of them noticed Sinéad on the floor, watching. Listening. Piecing together in her head what was happening. And slowly leaving the room. 


End file.
